Halloween's over! And it's cold, rainy, and kind of dark outside!! Guess what would help? Adding to your TBR list. This week, new reads proliferate in many local venues and varieties: Portland Book Festival posts up at the art museum, Cover to Cover brings readings to lit-friendly locations on both sides of the river, and the Zine Symposium keeps things DIY and a little radical. Plus, Shay Mirk chats nonfiction comics at Literary Arts, and the new Ursula K. Le Guin exhibition at Oregon Contemporary features her very cool purse. The reading-averse need not fear, though–other happenings, like a frybread festival and Yorgos Lanthimos' latest film, are solid options.
Monday, November 3
Oregon Zoo fall discount days
A serene morning and/or fun afternoon filled with cute animals and fall foliage? What could be better? The Oregon Zoo is making this scenario a little more accessible with its fall discount days, offering half-price adult admission ($13) from November 3–9. My favorite zoo residents to visit are the “clam-dunking” sea otters, precious bebe elephant Tula-Tu (she also knows ball), and the army of fruit bats. Visit them and more fascinating friends for a dose of much-needed animal therapy and some TIL moments. (Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon, through Nov 9, $13 adult admission, more info) JANEY WONG
Cover to Cover
Back when the Portland Book Festival was Wordstock, Cover to Cover was called Lit Crawl. It was only one night, all the readings were at essentially the same time, and attendees ran around—sweaty and breathless—like it was a local literary New Year's Eve. Cover to Cover is a saner version, spread out over a week and including more than a few of the city's actual bookshops. Will you query a small press owner at Spoke & Word Books on Monday, hear Dante’s Inferno read in Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday, or swap books at Baerlic Brewing on Wednesday? With Cover to Cover you can go to all three! (various times and locations, Nov 3-Nov 9, pdxbookfest.org for more info) SUZETTE SMITH
Tuesday, November 4
she's green / Starling / Herr God
For fans of Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Tanukichan
Authentic-feeling shoegaze is difficult to conjure in 2025. Last time they were in town—opening for Glixen in February—the Minneapolitans in she’s green halted all breathing in Polaris Hall when Zofia Smith’s vocals plunged the audience through a psychic rabbit hole and into an oversaturated bliss-forest. I think I took a lot of ketamine that night as well; it’s the perfect music for it. Starling, she's green's sonic sibling, is touring in tandem, as support, with Portland’s Herr God kicking everything off. Check out the latter's Dawn Summers is Dead split with House of Warmth; it’s some of the best music coming out of Portland right now. (Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth, 8 pm, $19.12, more info, all ages) NOLAN PARKER
Wednesday, November 5
Toner / Alien Boy / Conspire / Yudai
For fans of King Krule, Machine Country, The Jesus Lizard
The evolution of Oakland’s Toner has been a cool one to watch. It’s one of West Coast bedroom slacker-pop à la 2010 Best Coast or Wavves, evolving into No Age circa 2008—a rich tradition passed on like so many joints. Three of Portland’s absolute favorites open this rocker: The homos-supreme Alien Boy, Euro post-punk gang debs Conspire, and the monumentally noisy Yudai. All of whom have dropped some of Portland’s best new music in 2025. (Blackwater, 5115 NE Sandy, 7 pm, $10, more info, all ages) NP
Related: Stay sober if you can listening to Alien Boy’s new record, read our review.
The Faint / Hercules & Love Affair
For fans of Gossip, Death From Above 1979, Todd Terje
The band the Faint—particularly their Fasciinatiion album—was important to my group of nefarious teens, growing up. In the now, the band Hercules & Love Affair similarly means a great deal. Hercules & Love Affair was my second exposure to the artist Anohni (the first being on CocoRosie’s “Beautiful Boyz”), giving further context to a mythic being of good for this planet. Their music also just fucking bangs. Have you listened to “Hercules Theme” lately? It’s distilled sleazy dance-punk that’s so NYC 2008, the lines practically sniff themselves. As far as we can tell, there’s only the two bands on the bill. Where’s the after? (Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th, 8 pm, $41.75-$48, more info, all ages) NP
Topic Thunder
Since the daily barrage of news can be so discouraging, wouldn’t you rather take in information with a healthy spoonful of comedy? Enter the brand new comedy show Topic Thunder, hosted by the always-hilarious Adam Pasi and Nariko Ott (both former Mercury Geniuses of Comedy). These two smarty-pants, alongside some of the city’s best stand-ups, get together on one stage to present new routines revolving around the news—or “topics,” hence the name—of the week. BUT! It gets much better, because there will also be games, fun surprises, AND a hot-shit headliner, who for the inaugural episode is no other than the amazing KYLE KINANE (Comedy Central, Netflix, and more). I can’t think of a better way to get informed! (Psst! Want to save some bucks? Put in promo code “MERCURY” at checkout to get $5 off your ticket!) (Siren Theater, 3913 N Mississippi, 8 pm, 7:30 pm, $20, more info, all ages) WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
Also worth it…
Lady Killers, hosted by Ally J Ward & Devan Dailey, Mississippi Studios, more info
Straight dudes, take a hike—this rambunctious comedy show features an all-femme/queer/trans/nonbinary lineup of the city’s top laugh-makers.
Frank S. Matsura: Portraits From the Borderland, Japanese American Museum of Oregon, more info
JAMO's fall exhibition compiles textiles, artifacts, and early-1900s portraits of Columbia River Plateau Indigenous communities by Washington-based Japanese photographer Frank Matsura.
Sara Jaffe and Darcie Dennigan, Powell's Books, more info
Portland writer Sara Jaffe's new short story collection Hurricane Envy digs into queer parenting, music algorithms, post punk, and anti-Zionist Jewish identity, among other topics.
Thursday, November 6
Making Nonfiction Comics, Shay Mirk and Eleri Harris
Former editor at The Nib (and full disclosure, once a Mercury reporter) Shay Mirk teamed up with a fellow Nib editor and Eisner award-winning cartoonist Eleri Harris to make what is essentially the textbook on how to make nonfiction comics. Like the best instructional manuals, Making Nonfiction Comics is super readable, but unafraid of dialing into the nitty gritty when it needs. The book won't learn you to draw, but you'll come out with some ethics and an impressive amount of instruction from both Mirk and Harris' real life experience and several of the form's most impressive pioneers. (Literary Arts, 716 SE Grand, 6:30 pm, FREE, more info, all ages) SS
Also worth it:
The Decemberists, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, more info
Portland-grown indie folk band the Decemberists will dust off the cobwebs and blast selections from 2024 album As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, with support from a live orchestra.
claire rousay presents a little death, Holocene, more info
Experimental musician claire rousay heads to Holocene with more lush drones and pop-inflected, yet boundaryless compositions.
Friday, November 7
Recent Tragic Events
To celebrate 20 years of wonderful, rebellious performance, Third Rail Repertory is staging a remount of the first show their company ever produced, Recent Tragic Events. Yes, the first play Third Rail staged was about 9/11, and the company's founding artistic director Scott Yarbrough will once again direct a cast of characters desperately trying to stumble forward with their lives while world-changing events hang over their heads. Sounds a lot like Third Rail, TBH—sounds a lot like now. Watch this space for our review. (CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh, Nov 7-Nov 23, $25-$60, more info, content warning for 9/11) SS
Also worth it…
Ralph Pugay: ShangriLIEF, Adams and Ollman, more info
For his second solo show at Adams and Ollman, contemporary art practice innovator Ralph Pugay explores the myths of his own life, drawn very simply and very bigly.
Melt-Banana with w/ Deaf Club, Dream_Mega & B|_ank, Mississippi Studios, SOLD OUT, more info
Noisy Japanese outfit Melt-Banana will dole out violent pop alongside heavy hitters Deaf Club, Dream_Mega's filtered synth, and local experimenter B|_ank.
Saturday, November 8
Portland Book Festival
Every year, nonprofit Literary Arts brings a passel of writers, publishers, and book lovers to the Portland Art Museum and surrounding South Park Blocks to mark the start of cozy-nights-in-with-a-good-book season—on the other side of summer’s debaucherous beach read bacchanals. This year marks the 20th anniversary of what began as Wordstock, renamed in 2018. Attendees get to interact (no touching) with authors from all genres and backgrounds, hawking their words in the most enjoyable way possible: via talks and readings that’ll give you way too many good ideas of what to read next. Bring a tote, because you’re going to take home an armful of new things to stack on the nightstand. (Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, 10 am-6 pm, UPDATE: The fest is SOLD OUT as of Thurs Nov 6, more info, all ages) NED LANNAMANN
Frybread Fest
As a dish born out of colonization and displacement, frybread has a complicated history and place within Indigenous cuisine. But there’s something to celebrate about it, too: For many Native Americans, it’s a symbol of resilience and resourcefulness. The versatile food is getting its shine at the second annual Frybread Fest, where the first 200 attendees will enjoy free frybread. (If you don’t make it on time, frybread will be available for purchase from four different vendors.) Folks can also connect with the Indigenous community through storytelling by Ed Edmo and Karen Kitchen, powerful drumming by Turquoise Pride, and a traditional ribbon skirt making demonstration. (Director Park, 815 SW Park, 11 am-5 pm, FREE, more info, all ages) JW
Portland Zine Symposium
If you’re dropping in at Portland Book Festival, why not skip up the street to Portland State to grip some zines? Like PBF, the tipping point is simultaneously seeing your favs and finding something new. Like we wrote in the Fall Arts Issue, there are people writing about every topic ever—you’ll find comics, politics, and swag. Be sure to swing by the Portland Zine Meetup table and check out Something Good Happened Here, a beautiful anthology refuting the false narrative of Portland as a crime-ridden war zone. (Smith Memorial Ballroom at Portland State University, 1825 SW Broadway, Nov 8-9, 11 am-5 pm, more info, FREE, all ages) SS
Also worth it…
Stacey Abrams Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, more info
The famous political activist explains artificial intelligence through the lens of a page-turning thriller—her latest, Coded Justice.
Third Annual Japanese Music Recital, Clinton Street Theater, more info
Taiko drums pair with shamisen strings at this recital supporting Portland nonprofit Japanese drum and dance ensemble TAKOHACHI.
Sunday, November 9
Bugonia
Eccentric Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos seems to have finally found the fun with his ninth film, Bugonia. In it, we see Emma Stone’s and Jesse Plemons plead, bicker, debate, somersault over, and gnash at one another as the truth about who exactly is a murderous space alien afterall begins to unglue. Read our whole review! (playing in wide release, R) DOM SINACOLA
A Larger Reality: Ursula K. Le Guin
More than a visionary writer, Ursula K. Le Guin modeled an ethical way of living. She thought deeply about oppression, weaving elements of pacifism and environmental stewardship into the vast speculative worlds of her books. And while her name is synonymous with science fiction mastery, she's also a beloved Portland icon—many among us glimpsed her on TriMet or near her Northwest Portland home before her passing in 2018. Curated by her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, this exhibition pairs ephemeral objects with interactive installations—visitors can try out Le Guin's home typewriter, for instance—honoring the lasting influence and boggling imagination of the Hugo Award winner. (Oregon Contemporary, 8371 N Interstate, Fri-Sun 12-5 pm, FREE, more info, all ages) LC
Also worth it:
Moment: Suzo Saiz, Suzanne Kraft, Leaven Community Center, more info
Spanish experimenter Suso Saiz will deliver his first Pacific Northwest solo performance alongside LA electronic musician Suzanne Kraft.
Looking for even more events happening this week? Head on over to EverOut!
